Few golfers can have made a more tortuous journey to the top than Scotland’s Bob MacIntyre.
The home-loving lefty has struggled with the American way of life in his first full season on the PGA Tour, but now – after recruiting dad Dougie as an emergency caddie – he is celebrating the biggest win of his life at last week’s Canadian Open.
As the tears flowed in the wake of this breakthrough win on the US-based tour, MacIntyre could be forgiven for reflecting on the way he has become a winner at the highest level without ever forgetting his roots.
It is an understatement to say that his delightful home town of Oban is somewhat tucked away. No journey to that remote part of Scotland’s west coast is straightforward.
Overlooking the Isle of Kerrera and beyond that Mull, the town lies 88 miles from Glasgow Airport. They are tricky roads and the journey is two and half hours on a good day.
Throughout his formative years as a leading amateur and then as a successful pro on the DP World Tour, the 27-year-old has always needed to go the extra mile.
After winning PGA Tour status, MacIntyre sensibly set up a base in Orlando – but the home of Disney is no Oban. He freely admits he quickly felt homesick.
That’s why earlier this spring he flew home for three weeks with family and his shinty playing mates.
Indeed, by then playing this robust form of field hockey he sustained a shoulder injury that threatened his return to the PGA Tour at the end of April. But he partnered Thomas Detry to finish in a share of eighth place at the Zurich Classic in New Orleans.
Mentally, if not totally physically, he was recharged and then challenged at last month’s US PGA Championship where he again finished eighth thanks to a spectacular eagle at the last.
Then at Colonial he missed the cut and split with his latest caddie Scott Carmichael. He goes through bagmen at a rate of knots.
That led to the emergency call to his greenskeeper father and, famously, Dougie answered the call.
A flurry of visa issues ensued and dad turned up at the Hamilton course without proper credentials. But, eventually, he was wearing the bib to help a player no one knows better.
Dougie was the man who had introduced Bob to sport. To his beloved shinty, but – of course – also to golf. They lived over the road from the Glencruitten course where dad works.
They would share evening games around the four holes next to their house and as MacIntyre progressed, when finances allowed, so the epic journeys would start to foster a burgeoning amateur career.
“I couldn’t play in golf tournaments as a junior because we couldn’t afford it,” MacIntyre reflected after his Canadian victory.
“I think that made me. That makes me fight and never give up.
“[My parents] gave me the opportunity, but never was I spoon fed, I was always fighting for every bit of it.”
And never has there been a more appropriate bagman to assist the biggest win of a career to date. MacIntyre knows his dad’s cut of his £1.3m winnings in Ontario will now pay off his parents’ mortgage.
“He was a caddie for the week, but at the end of the day, he’s my dad,” MacIntyre said. “The emotion at the end, it was just almost out of sheer disbelief that we did it with him on the bag.
“I mean, the amount of work that the caddies do week-in, week-out, which is an unbelievable help. And then I just do it with my dad.”
Image caption,MacIntyre and his dad were both overcome after he secured his first PGA Tour title
Holding a five-shot lead with seven holes to play, that comfortable advantage was soon whittled away by the chasers. But MacIntyre, an unbeaten debutant at last year’s Ryder Cup, showed great fortitude down the stretch.
“I had a hell of a fight in me,” he said. “I’ve been working hard, really hard, on the mental side of the game because once we picked apart my game of golf, we realised that the game of golf isn’t the problem.
“I’m the problem. I’ve worked really hard at that with my team and I’ve said it probably for the last four or five weeks that the mental side’s so important to me.
“When it wasn’t going well, my dad just said, ‘what have you been working on, what are you doing?’ and I holed that putt on 10 and we just switched into gear.”
This was MacIntyre’s fifth tournament in a row. No wonder partying back home in Scotland this week is a greater attraction than playing the big money Memorial tournament for which he is now eligible.
The US Open lies in wait the following week at Pinehurst. He will go there with a decent showing in the last major as well as this win behind him.
The long and winding journey of his young life is paying rich dividends. He is answering questions that have lingered and can approach the meat of the golf season more confident than ever before – regardless of who will be on his bag.
“It just shows that I can compete at the top level,” he stated. “I always knew I could, but until you do it, you really don’t know.”